1Then Joseph gave a command to his servant. Joseph said, “Fill the men’s sacks with as much grain as they can carry. And put each man’s money into his sack with the grain. 2Put the youngest brother’s money in his sack too. But also put my special silver cup in his sack.” So the servant obeyed Joseph. 3Early the next morning, the brothers and their donkeys were sent back to their country. 4After they had left the city, Joseph said to his servant, “Go and follow the men. Stop them and say to them, 'We were good to you! So why have you been bad to us? Why did you steal my master’s silver cup? 5My master drinks from that cup and he uses it to learn secret things. What you did was wrong!’” 6So the servant obeyed. He rode out to the brothers and stopped them. The servant said the things to them that Joseph told him to say. 7But the brothers said to the servant, “Why does the governor say these things? We wouldn’t do anything like that! 8We brought back the money that we found in our sacks before. So surely we wouldn’t steal silver or gold from your master’s house. 9If you find that silver cup in any of our sacks, then let that man die. You can kill him, and we will be your slaves.” 10The servant said, “We will do as you say. ˻But I will not kill the man.˼ If I find the silver cup, then that man will be my slave. The others will be free.” 11Then every brother quickly opened his sack on the ground. 12The servant started looking in the sacks. He started with the oldest brother and ended with the youngest. He found the cup in Benjamin’s sack. 13The brothers were very sad. They tore their clothes to show their sadness. They put their sacks back on the donkeys and went back to the city. 14Judah and his brothers went back to Joseph’s house. Joseph was still there. The brothers fell to the ground and bowed down before him. 15Joseph said to them, “Why have you done this? Didn’t you know that I have a special way of learning secrets. No person can do this better than me!” 16Judah said, “Sir, there is nothing we can say! There is no way to explain. There is no way to show that we are not guilty. God has judged us guilty for something else we did. So all of us, even Benjamin, will be your slaves.” 17But Joseph said, “I will not make you all slaves! Only the man who stole the cup will be my slave. You others can go in peace to your father.” 18Then Judah went to Joseph and said, “Sir, please let me speak plainly with you. Please don’t be angry with me. I know that you are like Pharaoh himself. 19When we were here before, you asked us, 'Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20And we answered you, 'We have a father—he is an old man. And we have a young brother. Our father loves that son because he was born while our father was old. And that young son’s brother is dead. So this is the only son that is left born from that mother. Our father loves him very much.’ 21Then you said to us, 'Then bring that brother to me. I want to see him.’ 22And we said to you, 'That young boy can’t come. He can’t leave his father. If his father loses him, then his father would be so sad that he would die.’ 23But you said to us, 'You must bring your youngest brother or I will not sell you grain again.’ 24So we went back to our father and told him what you said. 25“Later, our father said, 'Go back and buy us some more food.’ 26And we said to our father, 'We can’t go without our youngest brother. The governor said he will not sell us grain again until he sees our youngest brother.’ 27Then my father said to us, 'You know that my wife Rachel gave me two sons. 28I let one son go away, and he was killed by a wild animal. And I haven’t seen him since. 29If you take my other son away from me, and something happens to him, then I will be sad enough to die.’ 30Now, imagine what will happen when we go home without our youngest brother—that boy is the most important thing in our father’s life! 31Our father will die if he sees that the boy isn’t with us—and it will be our fault! We will send our father to his grave a very sad man! 32“I took responsibility for the young boy. I told my father, 'If I don’t bring him back to you, then you can blame me all my life.’ 33So now I beg you, please let the boy go back with his brothers. And I will stay and be your slave. 34I can’t go back to my father if the boy is not with me. I am very afraid of what would happen to my father.”